mvc html.hidden,ASP.Net MVC Html.HiddenFor with wrong value

This code will not work

// remove the Step variable from the model state

// if you want the changes in the model to be

// taken into account

ModelState.Remove("Step");

model.Step = 2;

...because HiddenFor always (!) reads from ModelState not the model itself. And if it doesn't find the "Step" key it will produce the default for that variable type which will be 0 in this case

Here is the solution. I wrote it for myself but don't mind sharing it cause I see many people are struggling with this naughty HiddenFor helper.

public static class CustomExtensions

{

public static MvcHtmlString HiddenFor2(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, Expression> expression)

{

ReplacePropertyState(htmlHelper, expression);

return htmlHelper.HiddenFor(expression);

}

public static MvcHtmlString HiddenFor2(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, Expression> expression, object htmlAttributes)

{

ReplacePropertyState(htmlHelper, expression);

return htmlHelper.HiddenFor(expression, htmlAttributes);

}

public static MvcHtmlString HiddenFor2(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, Expression> expression, IDictionary htmlAttributes)

{

ReplacePropertyState(htmlHelper, expression);

return htmlHelper.HiddenFor(expression, htmlAttributes);

}

private static void ReplacePropertyState(HtmlHelper htmlHelper, Expression> expression)

{

string text = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression);

string fullName = htmlHelper.ViewContext.ViewData.TemplateInfo.GetFullHtmlFieldName(text);

ModelStateDictionary modelState = htmlHelper.ViewContext.ViewData.ModelState;

ModelMetadata metadata = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(expression, htmlHelper.ViewData);

if (modelState.ContainsKey(fullName))

{

ValueProviderResult currentValue = modelState[fullName].Value;

modelState[fullName].Value = new ValueProviderResult(metadata.Model, Convert.ToString(metadata.Model), currentValue.Culture);

}

else

{

modelState[fullName] = new ModelState

{

Value = new ValueProviderResult(metadata.Model, Convert.ToString(metadata.Model), CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture)

};

}

}

}

Then you just use it as usual from within you view:

@Html.HiddenFor2(m => m.Id)

It worth to mention it works with collections too.